A morally bankrupt country emerges?
When the July revolution happened, there was a lot of talk about how to rebuild the country, fix corruption, reform our foreign policy, and improve our economy, especially after losing a staggering 150 billion USD siphoned off by the past autocratic government.
I was told by everyone that the government reflects what the people are, but in a turn of events, the past political parties, who are equally corrupt, began mobilising their supporters from the grassroots level. Looting and extortion have resurfaced at all levels. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that revenge killings, arrests, and torture are happening. BNP and to some extent Jamat feel that with their strong grassroots presence, they have essentially won and are now holding the country hostage — just as the previous government did. So, how do we get out of this?
There's a very senile claim that we are morally bankrupt, saying that we as a nation cannot truly refrain from causing disruption or follow the law & order, or that we lack a moral backbone. My father told me we used to be a moral society, but now we are not. People have lost any sense of morality or sense of justice they had before.
But that’s not true. Otherwise, we would not have had a revolution, which was about all the good things we want for our country — like freedom of speech, ending discrimination, and eliminating corruption. People were also fed up with seeing politicians lacking morality and acting invincible after committing horrible crimes. So no, I don’t believe we are inherently immoral.
I believe it’s due to mind policing and self-censorship imposed by political parties, which limit our freedom of expression. When that space for expression was briefly opened, we saw amazing statements against corruption, religious oppression, and oppression in the hills. This makes me wonder — what keeps us from maintaining the momentum?
It’s fear. People are so afraid to speak out. They are afraid because, while the masters may change, all masters are oppressive, and we have forgotten what courage is. Courage, like many things, can die from the lack of habit. Restarting the heart takes more than one shock. It was important to awaken our morality, but now we need to keep it beating strong.
I think if we dig deep into this movement, we can say something did bring out the best in us — something I can only call inspiration. Some things inspired courage in us — like the death of Abu Sayeed, who bravely faced the gun a second time after being shot once. In moments like that, we remembered that we are indeed brave; we just lack inspiration, something that straightens our backs and broadens our chests.
We need courage and bravery in our villages and cities, only then can we revive our morality and foster the creation of a new nation. Courage needs work, it needs inspiration, and we need to keep the country inspired so we can brave oppression. We must resist the feeling that our lives are always at risk, a feeling we constantly get speaking out against oppression even to this day. Its the oppressors who should be afraid of the people, isnt that what democracy is all about?
